11.12.07

Shen's News: Writing to you from Ocean Shores where Taro & I have just had a lovely concert with guitarist Tarshito and flute player Paul Kimmel. Bamboo Bliss at Brisbane City Hall was fantastic - big thanks to sponsors Shikara Design for the beautiful stage-design as well as ongoing support. Read a brief review and check photos here: Bamboo Bliss - photos on DivineArts.net

We continue our tour this week with an Indian classical concert in Maleny at the UpFront Club on Thursday. We then join a very special event on Saturday - Global Soul Music Vol 4 - EthnoSuperLounge Xmas Party at Core Yoga in West End, a gathering of a lot of the musicians I've been working with in the last few months including Taro, Tenzin, Asim, the smooth jazz vibes of Ravi, Robert and Magambo and many more. Then on Sunday it's off to Noosa for a Tibet2Timbuk2 concert featuring Tenzin and Taro. In the following weeks we're off to Melbourne, Woodford and finish up with some nice home and temple concerts in the new year.

4.12.07

Shen's News: Taro arrives this week!!! In case you missed the news, Taro is a really wonderful bansuri player. It's hard for me to convey in an email how much you will enjoy hearing his flute. So you'll just have to come and listen! :-)

27.11.07

Shen's News: Twas a lovely concert by Tibet2Timbuk2 with Menaka at Core Yoga on Saturday for Global Soul Music Vol 3 - really beautiful music! But... not many people. I hope you and your friends will feel inspired to share in our sufic musical journeying at future EthnoSuperLounge events (eg Bamboo Bliss). I've also posted a photo from a recent rehearsal with the group Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

Taro Terahara's Dec 8 concert "Bamboo Bliss" is fast approaching. Seating is reserved so get in quickly to get the best seats. You can get tickets for Bamboo Bliss online at ethnosuperlounge.com, and in person at Core Yoga, The Forest and Shikara Design.

Taro Terahara's Dec 8 concert "Bamboo Bliss" is fast approaching. Seating is reserved so get in quickly to get the best seats. You can get tickets for Bamboo Bliss online at ethnosuperlounge.com, and in person at Core Yoga, The Forest and Shikara Design.

SPECIAL OFFER: For ESL email list members - tickets for Bamboo Bliss will be $1 off at Global Soul Music Vol 3 this Saturday night.

ESL Forum: STILL no response from my request for discussion on downloading music. How much would you pay to download a track by Tibet2Timbuk2? Or wouldn't you? If not, why not? Please share your opinion here: Price for downloading songs/CDs. Another post awaiting discussion: World fusion music (how to?)

Don't forget Taro Terahara's concert "Bamboo Bliss" on Dec 8 - you can get tickets for Bamboo Bliss onlineat the new EthnoSuperLounge Shop.Please note that tickets are reserved, so if you'd like a nice seat please buy them soon!

Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli were two of the most influential musicians in Jazz. The music they created in the 1930s and 40s with the Quintet du Hot Club du France remains some of the most exciting and timeless Swing Jazz ever played.

Django was a Manouche gypsy and his finely crafted melodic playing blended the music he inherited with early 20th Century Jazz, the music of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, to blaze a new trail in the realm of acoustic jazz.

After Django’s untimely death in 1953, Manouche guitarists adopted the style of their hero as their own, and the music they played came to be known as Jazz Manouche, Manouche Gypsy Swing, or simply Gypsy Jazz. Through them it has continued to survive and flourish, and today there are many musicians and groups around the world devoted to this music.

Among these is Australian group Mystery Pacific. Its members share a love for this music and they have a mission statement to ‘to filter the genius of Django through our own cultural influences and modern inflections to produce a uniquely identifiable style that still has its roots in Manouche Jazz’. They take the compositions of Django as their canon, together with 20th Century standards and their own original material.

Mystery Pacific released their first CD, recorded live at the Brisbane Jazz Club.